Of Jam and Freedom
by fireheart93
Summary: The Doctor and Katana visit a castle but end up as slaves. Will they escape or will their morals hold them back?
1. Chapter 1

Katana was sitting in the TARDIS kitchen, drinking tea and reading a book

Katana was sitting in the TARDIS kitchen, drinking tea and reading a book. She looked up as the Doctor walked in.

"Morning," she said.

"Good morning," he replied, walking over to the fridge. "How did you sleep?"

"Good, thanks," Katana said. "I won't bother asking how you slept 'cos I know you spent all night tinkering in the control room!"

"I was not tinkering!" the Doctor said, huffily. Her had opened the fridge and got out the jam. He unscrewed the lid and dipped his fingers in. he scooped up a blob of jam and spooned it into his mouth. He licked his fingers clean and took another scoop.

"I'm so not eating that now," Katana said, looking at him disgustedly. "Why can't you use a spoon like normal people?"

"Because spoons taste all metally," the Doctor replied. Katana just looked at him.

"Riiight," she said slowly. "Anyway, where are we going today?"

The TARDIS landed in a small copse on the edge of a field. In the distance there was a large castle with farmland surrounding it. Katana and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS.

"Where are we?" Katana asked, looking around intently.

"I have no idea," the Doctor replied. Katana looked at him. The Doctor shifted uncomfortably. Katana didn't stop staring at him.

"Let's go ask at the castle," he said, stepping forward suddenly. Katana sighed, shook her head and followed him.

They hadn't been walking for very long when they reached another small copse. They walked into it.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Katana said, looking around nervously.

"Nonsense!" the Doctor replied, looking just as nervous as she was.

Suddenly a net landed over the Doctor, knocking him to the ground. Before Katana could react, a man came up behind her and grabbed her by the upper arms. She struggled but couldn't escape. Another man came over to them and hit her over the head. The last thing she saw was the Doctor stop moving, and then all was blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's notes: I know the chapters are quite short but that's just how I felt the story best divided up. Thanks to the wonderful Karan for betaing for me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who...though Christmas is coming up...

2

Katana woke up chained to the wall of a dark cell.

"Oh my head!" she groaned. "This is way too familiar." She looked around for the Doctor and saw him lying on the other side of the room. She tried to crawl over to him but her chain prevented her from moving to him. She swung her leg around and tapped him with her foot, calling "Doctor!" softly, so as not to alert any guards. Eventually the Doctor began to move.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"In a cell, I'm guessing in the castle," Katana replied.

"Why do you think we are in the castle?" the Doctor asked.

"Because all castles have dark, damp cells like this one," Katana replied, matter-of-factly.

"You've been reading too much fiction," the Doctor said. Katana was prevented from replying by the arrival of a four very large guards. One moved over to the Doctor, another to Katana and the remaining two stayed by the door.

"Ah gentlemen," the Doctor said, "would you be so kind as too…"

"Silence!" the largest guard interrupted. "High Lord Visako demands to see his new prisoners immediately!"

"Best not keep him waiting then," the Doctor thought to Katana.

"Shut up," she replied, shooting him a look that clearly told the Doctor that she blamed him for the mess they were in. The guards chained their hands behind their backs, leading them out of the cell and into the labyrinthine passages of High Lord Visako's castle.

They were dragged into a huge hall and lead over to what was obviously a throne.

"Kneel!" the guard ordered.

"I'd rather not," the Doctor replied, "bad knees you know…" He was cut off as the guard pushed his to the floor. The guard holding Katana did the same to her and, unable to use her hands to break her fall she fell face down on the stone. Slowly she pulled herself up into a kneeling position. Suddenly a fanfare of trumpets was heard and an overdressed old man walked into the room, followed by an entourage of servants, slaves and adoring women. He walked over to throne and sat down. He addressed the guard holding the Doctor.

"Who are these people that you have brought to me?"

"They were caught trespassing on your land, my Lord," the guard replied, standing to attention. Lord Visako looked at the Doctor and asked,

"Do you know what the penalty is for trespassing?"

"No," the Doctor replied. "But would I be correct in assuming it is not pleasant?"

"You would be," Visako said, dryly. "The penalty for trespassing is death!" On the word 'death' the guards drew their knives and held them at the Doctor's and Katana's throats. Katana swore under her breath then shut her eyes. Moments later the vicious look in Visako's eyes faded slightly. He walked over to Katana, reaching out his hand to hold her chin, turning her face gently.

"However," he said, "it would be a pity to waste your beauty, my dear, and indeed, your companion strikes me as a man who could stand a day's hard work. Here is my decree. Take these two down to the slave's quarters and have them fitted with appropriate clothing. Then the man is to be sent to the fields to work with the gatherers. Send the girl to me." He turned and walked out. When he had left, Katana and the Doctor were dragged to their feet and taken to the slave quarters.

"What did you do?" the Doctor asked Katana in her mind.

"I planted the suggestion of slavery in his mind," replied Katana in the same way.

"Why didn't you just have him set us free?" asked the Doctor.

"It would have been two obvious that something else was influencing him," Katana replied. "It was much safer to have him change death to slavery than to freedom."

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing," the Doctor said. He guessed Katana didn't want him to hear her whispered,

"So do I," but he did.


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N: **Sorry this is short but, like i said before, i felt that this was the natural place to end the chapter.

**3**

A week had passed and both Katana and the Doctor were getting fed up.

"I swear if that overdressed buffoon tries to touch me up one more time..." Katana said to the Doctor, leaving the end of that sentence to the Doctor's imagination.

"At least you don't have to spend all day cutting corn. I haven't been this tired since I was revising for my exams!" the Doctor replied. They were both sitting in the corner of the huge, underground room that housed all the slaves. It was easily the size of the throne room and housed close to 300 slaves. These were split into three groups, farm slaves, house slaves who cooked and cleaned and pleasure slaves. The farm slaves were mostly men and the house slaves were a mix of men and women. The pleasure slaves were almost entirely women of beauty with a talent for dancing and singing. The Doctor was a farm slave whereas Katana was a pleasure slave. The Doctor had been dressed in a rough brown tunic with matching trousers; Katana was wearing a simple, knee length, deep blue dress. Katana had been worried that she would have to wear something more revealing but it appeared that Visako wanted his girls to _appear_ respectable.

"I tell you, I have never seen anything sadder in my life," Katana was telling the Doctor. "These girls cannot be more then fifteen years old and they are desperate for Visako to sleep with them, and do you know why?" the Doctor shook his head. "Because he pays them in food. These girls are so hungry that they are willing to sleep with that fat git just to get there hands on some decent food. It's disgraceful! I wish we could do something to help them," Katana said, looking intensely at the Doctor.

"Maybe we could," the Doctor said slowly. "I could smuggle some food from the fields. It won't be much but it will do for now."

"Good idea," Katana said.

And so that is what the Doctor did. Everyday he would hide some food in his clothing and take it to Katana. She in turn would take it to the girls who needed it most. They carried on like this for two weeks. They could have escaped but Katana didn't want to abandon the slaves and the Doctor felt the same way. They agreed to try and free the slaves, by any means necessary. They were pleased with themselves. Then things started to go wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N:** Another short chapter but it's the second of the day so it balances out.

**4**

The Doctor had been stealing food for three weeks before the guards noticed food was going missing. They didn't say anything straight away, just observed the slaves carefully. They couldn't tell for certain who had done it but the new, brown haired slave certainly acted shifty. The slave master went to the prison where the slaves were held and made an announcement.

"In this castle, we take discipline very seriously," he said, looking around belligerently. "Stealing in particular is a serious crime. You!" he shouted suddenly, pointing at a teenage boy with his whip. "Can you tell me what the punishment is for stealing?" The boy looked fearful and he kept his head down as he whispered,

"A flogging."

"That's right," the slave master said, jovially "a flogging." He abruptly changed moods. "And a flogging is exactly what the scum who has been stealing food for the past week is going to get! Would the lowlife piece of refuse that has committed this crime please step forward." No one moved. No one looked up. No one even dared to breathe loudly. The slave master was infamous for flogging slaves to death. He stood and looked around.

"Is no one going to own up?" he asked after a few minutes. "Well, it looks like I'm going to have to starve you all to pay for this fool's crime." The slaves gasped, a few muffed sobs but none said a word. The Doctor was also shocked. He had not expected to be caught, or to have the slaves used against him. He decided the best course of action would be for him to take the flogging. He tried to stand, to speak, to own up but he couldn't. Something, or someone, had cut his mind off from the rest of his body. He could think about moving but couldn't actually do it. He was trying to work out how to unlock his mind when he heard a voice next to him shout out,

"It was me! It was me who stole the food!" He had a moment of confusion. But then he realised exactly who was speaking. And he realised he could not stop them.


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N:** Someone is beaten in this chapter. It's not graphic (if it was i couldn't read it) but if you find any mention of that type of thing disturbing then skim over this chapter.

**5  
**

The slave master looked up, grinning. His plan had worked. He looked around, expecting to see the brown haired man. But he was in for a surprise. Because the person he saw did not have brown hair and wasn't a man. The person who had confessed had red hair and was most definitely a woman.

"You?" he asked, stunned.

"Me," Katana replied. "I stole it while coming back from the great hall every evening. I stole it because other wise we would have starved to death under your so called care."

"How dare you say such things?" the slave master spluttered. "Guards! Bring her to me." Two guards grabbed Katana and dragged her over to where the slave master stood, forcing her to kneel in front of him, facing the other slaves. The Doctor could only watch in growing panic, still unable to move or speak because of Katana's hold on his mind.

"This girl has confessed to stealing food," the slave master began. "The punishment for this crime is a flogging." He reached out his hand. The guard next to him handed him a long, thin stick. Katana raised her eyes from the floor and looked among the crowd, searching for one particular pair of eyes. She found them just as the whip met her back. She did not cry out but the Doctor could see the pain in her eyes. She did not break eye contact with him. He supported her mind with his, using the link she had already established. It was the least he could do. Again and again the whip struck Katana's back and each time the Doctor felt her pain like a physical blow. He felt so guilty. It was he who had been careless when taking the food but Katana who was paying the price. Eventually it was over. The guards holding Katana pushed her to the floor, giving the Doctor a good view of her back. It was covered in long slashes, each one bleeding.

"Let that be a warning to all of you," the slave master said. Then he turned and walked out followed by the guards who locked the door behind him.

The Doctor rushed over to Katana.

"Are you alright?" he asked. Katana opened her eyes and looked at him.

"I've been better," she said, "but I'm not dead yet." The Doctor picked Katana up and carried her over to their corner of the room. He ripped of the bottom of his shirt and began to wipe her wounds clean.

"Why did you do that?" the Doctor asked.

"It was my idea to steal the food," Katana said, weakly. "I couldn't bear to see you hurt."

"So you'd rather I have to watch you hurt and possibly killed?" the Doctor asked, starting to get angry. Katana hissed in pain and the Doctor realised that he had been pressing hard on one of her deeper cuts.

"Sorry," he said. "And thank you."


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

The next evening, Katana and the Doctor were sitting together in the slave quarters. Katana had a new dress, this one a pale violet. The blue one had been ruined with her blood and the cuts from the whip.

"How's your back?" the Doctor asked, still guilty.

"Much better," Katana replied. "It's already started to heal."

"Your powers?"

"Yeah. That's another reason I took the beating, I heal much faster than you do."

"Well I can regenerate," the Doctor responded, somewhat childishly.

"Yes but you are incapacitated for around 36 hours after regeneration, I am only incapacitated by a serious wound for about 24 hours," Katana replied almost smugly.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, "what are we going to do about the slaves?"

"I say we let them out," Katana said. "You can tell that they want freedom, that they are willing to fight for it. I say we give them the chance to do so."

"How are they supposed to face the armed guards when they are unarmed?" the Doctor asked. "They would be slaughtered."

"A lot of the guards are boys from the local villages who were forced to be guards," Katana replied. "They are sympathetic to the slaves. They wouldn't fight." The Doctor still looked unsure, so Katana carried on, "Doctor, everyone deserves their freedom. We can help these people gain theirs. You've saved countless other people from slavery, why not these?" The Doctor didn't answer. Instead he got up and walked to the centre of the room.

"Could I have everyone's attention please?" he shouted. The room went silent. "Thank you. My name is the Doctor and I have a proposition to give you. As you may have guessed I am not from this planet. Where I come from we believe that every person has a right to freedom and that slavery is a direct violation of that right. So I am going to offer you freedom." The crowd looked doubtful. One man spoke up,

"But how can you help us? You're just as trapped as we are."

"My friend can break the lock on that door, let us out. After that we will have to fight the guards but many of them are sympathetic to us. They won't fight. What do you say?" many of the slaves still looked unsure. The man who had spoken before stood up and walked over to the Doctor.

"My name is Andrew," he said, "and I'm with you." Other slaves began to stand up moving over to the Doctor. Katana stood and walked over to him.

"I'm with you," she said, loud and clear. "I would rather die fighting alongside you for freedom than trapped in some miserable hell of an existence." She maintained eye contact with the Doctor and he caught the meaning behind her words. She would rather die fighting for him and with him than remain on her planet, where all she had to defend herself from the fear and mistrust of her people was her technological skill. He smiled at her and she smiled back. More and more slaves were coming to join them, until finally none remained seated. The Doctor turned to Katana.

"After you, my lady," he said.

"Why thank you, kind sir," she replied. She moved to stand in front of the door, about two metres away from it. She raised her arm until her hand was level with the lock. She closed her eyes and made a pushing motion with her hand. The lock burst open. She opened the door and walked out into the corridor. The other slaves waited a beat and then ran out, following her to freedom.


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

The Doctor was standing in the centre of the throne room. In the rooms around him the sounds of fighting had died down. He stood and waited for what seamed like an age. Finally there was movement at the entrance to the room as Katana walked in. he ran up to her and hugged her tightly. Then he held her at arms length, looking her up and down. She looked tired and she had a shallow gash on her forehead that had dribbled blood down her cheek. In her right hand she held what looked like a shorter version of the Japanese Katana. The Doctor smile at the irony.

"What?" Katana asked.

"It's just ironic. Katana fighting with a Katana. And where did you get that?" he grinned. Katana grinned right back.

"They call it a Banethra," she replied. "And I liberated it from a guard who obviously didn't know how to use it properly."

"Where did you learn to fight like that anyway?" the Doctor asked, curiously.

"My father taught me," Katana replied as she cleaned the Banethra and re-sheathed it. "He taught me hand-to-hand combat too. He wanted me to be able to defend myself."

"I'm glad he did," the Doctor said, sincerely. He hugged her again

"Why are you so sentimental all of a sudden?" Katana asked as she disentangled herself from him.

"The last time I saw you before we got separated you were facing down a guard at least a metre taller than you and twice as heavy. I thought I had lost you." Katana smiled.

"Oh him," she said, "yeah, you know he didn't look nearly as large or scary after a well placed kick where it hurts." She grinned evilly. The Doctor winced in sympathy. Just then, Andrew walked into the room. He was limping slightly from a leg wound but it had been bandaged.

"All the guards have been dealt with," he reported.

"Visako?" the Doctor asked.

"Dead," Andrew stated. "He was no match for a dozen angry slaves."

"He got what he deserved," Katana said, her eyes hard and unforgiving. The Doctor cleared his throat.

"Anyway, we'd best be going. Things to do, places to go, people to meet, you know the sort of thing."

"Of course," Andrew said. "We found your clothes and belongings in Visako's room. We put them on the desk."

"Thanks," Katana said. "What are you going to do now?"

"We'll be fine. The castle has a lot of very fertile farmland around it. We'll survive." Katana smiled and the Doctor nodded. They began to walk out but stopped when Andrew called out to them,

"Before you go, answer me this. If you had the power to break the prison door, why didn't you escape sooner?" Katana looked at the Doctor, then walked back to Andrew.

"Two reasons," she said. "One: magic is only supposed to be used as a last resort, and two: it's much more fun to try to escape without magic first!" and with that she turned and walked away, following the Doctor back to the TARDIS and her new life.

Three days later, Katana was sitting in the TARDIS kitchen, drinking tea and reading a book. The whip marks on her back were completely healed, only scars remained and they would be gone in another day or so. They had spent the last three days floating aimlessly in the void, supposedly resting and recuperating, but that lasted all of about ten minutes before both her and the Doctor got bored. So instead he and Katana had spent those days practicing both sword fighting and hand to hand combat. Katana had kept the Banethra she had taken and was become more and more skilled with it every day. The Doctor wasn't sure whether he liked her carrying it around or not, but he knew her and trusted her well enough to know that she would avoid killing any living thing. It made him fell better to know she could defend herself. And so life returned to normal, or as normal as it could get in the TARDIS. There was only one minor alteration. The Doctor was no longer bouncing around like a five year old on a sugar rush. Some would say it was a result of what they had been through over the last few weeks but Katana knew better. Somebody had hidden the jam and wouldn't give it back until he promised not to eat it with his fingers. Now, I wonder who that could be…


End file.
